© Faiz Abu Rmeleh/ActiveStillsPalestinians form a human chain around Jerusalem’s Old City on 26 December, calling on Israel to return the bodies of Palestinians slain by its forces.
When the
"intifada of the knives" set off in October last year, Western reporters flooded in to Jerusalem to cover the new "escalation," interview people from "both sides of the conflict" and raise several variations of the old question: "Is this the beginning of a third intifada?"
Inevitably, the journalists left once a massive crackdown significantly reduced the number of deadly attacks against Israelis in the city. It is an all too familiar pattern for Palestinians, who know by now that
it's only "escalation" when there are dead or wounded Israelis. Deaths, injuries, arrests and home demolitions inflicted on Palestinians by Israel are deemed business as usual, not worthy of further inquiry.The daily acts of collective punishment suffered by Palestinians in Jerusalem and their
slow ethnic cleansing are too routine to be considered newsworthy. The temporary checkpoints, closures and concrete blocks imposed during the crackdown may have gone and the numbers of Israeli troops on the streets may have been reduced.
Yet the Israeli repression — and Palestinian resistance — remains.Holding the dead hostageOne of Israel's most troubling tactics is its
withholding the bodies of slain Palestinians.In mid-October the Israeli security cabinet endorsed several measures to quell the unrest. One involved reviving a
decades-long policy of withholding the bodies of Palestinians accused of carrying out attacks. Since then,
more than 80 bodies have been withheld. Israel began gradually releasing the bodies in late December after weeks of mass protests, most notably in Hebron, but the bodies of
10 Palestinian Jerusalemites remain in Israeli morgues.
Comment: Doing the above will give a person a certain degree of personal freedom and will be beneficial for their mental, physical and spiritual health. They are very worthy pursuits on their own but should we expect that engaging in such will change the world? Will the control system even notice or will it continue on unhindered as it has done throughout millennia despite those who decline to participate?